Software performance analysis using hardware analyzer

摘要

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for analyzing the performance of a computer program inn a way that is accurate in light of prefetching caching operations. The method operates by inserting output sequences into a computer program. An output sequence is a sequence of instructions which cause the program to send an output through the data bus to an output terminal. A hardware analyzer records the output from the output terminal, and this output is used to calculate performance of the computer program. The present invention provides facilities to insert output sequences into executable code, thereby allowing performance analysis to take place without time consuming recompilation. The present invention requires only a small number connections from a hardware analyzer to output terminals connected to the processor data bus. This greatly simplifies the process of gathering data with a hardware analyzer. The present invention also provides for sending information to the output terminals in a format that indicates the progress of the program through subroutine and function calls.